There, for many years he lived side by side with the country people, a life ruled by the slow cycle of the seasons, far away from the frantic rush of the modern world. In spring as the pear trees blossomed he ploughed with horses, in summer he scythed the hay meadows and in the freezing winters gathered wood by sleigh from the forest. From sheepfolds harried by wolves, to courting expeditions in the snow, he experienced the traditional way of life to the full, and became accepted into a community who treated him as one of their own. But Blacker was also intrigued by the Gypsies, those dark, foot-loose strangers of spell-binding allure who he saw passing through the village. Locals warned him to stay clear but he fell in love and there followed a bitter struggle. Change is now coming to rural Romania, and William Blacker's adventures will soon be part of its history. From his early carefree days tramping the hills of Transylvania, to the book's poignant ending, Along the Enchanted Way transports us back to a magical country world most of us thought had vanished long ago.

    People consider her guilty of spreading a disease, and during one single torrid summer, she turns into public enemy no. 1. At first she attracts the attention of the villagers, and afterwards, through mass-media, she becomes a national sensation. As this character develops, hunted, blamed and adored at the same time, various secrets, more or less important, are revealed, gradually turning the story into the chronicle of this small rural community. Hypocrisy, humiliation, cruelty and murder. Each character had contributed one way or another to the change of mentality in society. All these old occurrences actually represent the underground of the contemporary world, and once disclosed, the history of the last 60 years is recomposed in detail, unveiling how the east-European village has been undergoing a sustained downfall. The 13 stories (forming Lizoanca’s story) all lead to a single character, a certain Crone Petrache Notaru (80 years old). He is the one who committed all these landmark acts changing the life of the village, and all the other characters are built around him, weaving, one way or another, Lizoanca’s biography. Notaru ruined Tori’s life (Lizoanca’s grandmother). He is also responsible for Greblă’s fixations, who is a paedophile. Notaru fed Sanitara’s fears, embittering her. And he rewrites the history of an antic ring which he had found when he was a child. Notaru is the unknown architect of a world which can synthetically be named Lizoanca.Based on a true story, the novel represents the radiography of the contemporary society, during its last moments.

    This book is the inspiring story of one of them. Although his earthly life was only just thirty-one years, he attained union with Christ in a remarkable wayThe first part of the book gives a short account of his early life. Both of his parents were devout Christians; Valeriu was the only son, but had three sisters. The account of his last meeting with his father, who died in a camp after courageously defending his village, is most moving.Valeriu was an intelligent young man, idealistic and passionate about his faith and his country. He was a law student when he was arrested, aged just twenty, because of his involvement in “the brothers of the cross” within the Legionnaire organisation. Whatever ones political views are of the Legionnaires party, there is no doubt that Valeriu was solely motivated by a pure idealism that cared passionately about his country and his fellow men.The account of the rest of his life spent in three prisons is drawn together like a mosaic, from his own writings and from testimonies from and dialogues with Valeriu. “He lived the Word of God to such a level that it was incomprehensible for us;” Father Ghorghe Calciu.Excerpt from the chapter "Dialogues with Valeriu": "Q: ‘Valeriu, what is the essence of today’s crisis?A: Atheism.Q: What do you see in today's world?A: I see internal chaos, a decomposition that is leading toward nihilism, because people are obsessed with the nothingness of matter, with the fiction of forms, with sensual exhaustion, with historicism without transcendence, with ceremonialism without God, with consumerism without spirituality, by the falseness that conceals itself within the self-deification of Man. Disaster is unfolding on all planes of fortitude of human life. Much suffering will be necessary in order to re-orient the world spiritually and to change its way of life,Q: Why did God allow the world to sink into this present crisis, after some 2000 years of Christianity?A: This crisis is not from God, nor is it from faith, but rather from the freedom of the human conscience, In the past few centuries, man has profaned the world, devastated souls, encouraged sensuality and has fallen prey to the pride of materialism and atheism. At the same time, satanic forces are more refined and better organised in the 20th century than in the first Christian age. The way in which saints are killed by the beast and perish in the 20th century is much more diabolical, more perverse, more complete, better studied, more horrible than the way in which martyrs were killed during the age of the catacombs’ (p. 248)."

    She is also crippled by mental instability and the fact that she can't leave her flat. Anatomical Clues (Indicii anatomice) is a gripping, grotesque exploration of damaged psychologies, fear and greed in a constantly shifting social landscape - a tale, which, like Iolanda, will creep into your head and stay there." (Mike Phillips) "The eyes had been plucked and laid carefully on the living room table, in between two withered roses. For the home of a pensioner, the two-room apartment was neater and cleaner than the policemen had expected. In fact, everything was in perfect order, and it was just these eyes - so real - which didn't fit with the rest of the picture. On the other hand, they were not strikingly out of place. There was, however, no sign of the body to which they must have belonged."

    In the book s second section the narratives immigrate to the United States, where the skepticism learned in fabulous youth infects and frustrates American attitudes and institutions. Real fictions of strange lands, Ifland’s stories demonstrate a deep sympathy with the visionary outsider and a vital and provocative international point of view.

    Its inhabitants lived in prosperous agricultural towns. The ubiquitous goddess figurines found in their houses and shrines have triggered intense debates about women's roles. The Lost World of Old Europe is the accompanying catalog for an exhibition at New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. This superb volume features essays by leading archaeologists as well as breathtaking color photographs cataloguing the objects, some illustrated here for the first time.The heart of Old Europe was in the lower Danube valley, in contemporary Bulgaria and Romania. Old European coppersmiths were the most advanced metal artisans in the world. Their intense interest in acquiring copper, Aegean shells, and other rare valuables gave rise to far-reaching trading networks. In their graves, the bodies of Old European chieftains were adorned with pounds of gold and copper ornaments. Their funerals were without parallel in the Near East or Egypt. The exhibition represents the first time these rare objects have appeared in the United States.An unparalleled introduction to Old Europe's cultural, technological, and artistic legacy, The Lost World of Old Europe includes essays by Douglass Bailey, John Chapman, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici, Ioan Opris and Catalin Bem, Ernst Pernicka, Dragomir Nicolae Popovici, Michel S�f�riad�s, and Vladimir Slavchev.